Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman admitted that he was worried
about his team’s offensive performance, after their 1-1 draw with
Deportivo Alaves, Saturday, in the Spanish League.
In the last 3 meetings of the “Liga”, Barcelona suffered two
losses from Getafe and then Real Madrid, before it tied with
Alaves outside the stadium and the team is currently in twelfth
place with 8 points from 6 games.
The equalizer for Barcelona came through Antoine Griezmann,
who took advantage of an “unintended” pass to find himself in
front of Alaves’ goal. As for his teammates, Lionel Messi and
Anso Fati, they did not pose any danger.
The trio scored a combined 6 goals in 6 La Liga matches this
season, which is a very small average from the Dutch coach’s
point of view.
“I am concerned about the attack’s performance. It is not a
matter of behavior or focus, but it is a matter of scoring in front
of goal,” Koeman said in an interview with the newspaper
“Marca” after the match.
He continued: “This happened against Juventus (last week in the
Champions League, when Barcelona won with two clean goals)
and tonight as well. In addition, we awarded a goal to Alaves.”
Coman was referring to the goal that housed Barcelona as a
result of a common mistake between goalkeeper Neto and
defender Gerard Pique.
The coach added, “But if we create many opportunities, we
cannot back down in this way. If you create opportunities and
score one goal, this is not good enough.”
The Spanish League runner-up gave up the services of the
attacking star Luis Suarez last summer, who moved to Atletico
Madrid in a surprise deal.
Barcelona will host Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine, on Wednesday,
in the third stage of the group stage of the Champions League,
before facing Real Betis in the “Camp Nou” next week in the
domestic league.
